Document jgYgZ6gGeYRj29wykrD87j93O

KENILWORTH, N.J. SUBURBAN LEADER W. 2,500 OCT 2 1975 EARTHBOUND Director, Ecology ond Conservotlon. .. Wavo HIM Cantor for Environmontal Studio*. Now Yfk, N.Y. ' ' ;` llirot years ago 1 wai (lMsMitg a lecture aeries about the ecology of the Hudson River. 1 gadded to complete tbe aoriaa by Inviting Robert H. Boyla, the writer and sonfer odttor of gporta Illustrated to tpeek at the Imt iwelon. He came and epoko to the group from the daptliB of what was a unique wll and visionary indignation. Ho talked about the work, or non* work, of state government officials as that related to water raaourcea. Boyle is very ftmny man. He uses Ms acid humor to bring points homo ond has ebdut as much respect for doubMaiktng bureaucrats as Johnny Bench ror a tortoise on Me way to seeoad. He's one of the flns writers of our Uma. making valuable and Insightful comments on one aspect or another of our attitude about our environment. I class Mm with Tom Wicker, Norman Mailer, Art BuefrwaJd, Jack Newfiold, Jimmy BresMn and others like them--writers with imagination. Intuition and appreciation for tha intelligence and good some of tbe metabolisms and reproductive eyelet, However, several catat of human mortality In Japan have been ciooely documented and Iracoddoflnattvety to the effects of injoftng PCB chemicala. ,* Lett week the Commissioner of Environ- mental Protection of the State of Now York declared that until the effects of ddngefnjtiy high levels of PCBs found in salmon and striped bass in the Hudson estuary can be determined, these fish should not be esten by ditlssns. Bob Boyle's throe-year old warning bad coma to fruition, and since many of the fish of both these species consumed by metropolitan New Yorkers and Now Jsrsoyens spend game of their lives (spawning and overwintering) in tbe Hudm, who knows which wo caa eat and which we can't. Piah aren't labeled Tm the market according to where they spent the winter !i ,-- and .cooa-4argely com--of electric powoc projects up and down rivers in this part ef tha country, ho conchidod by showing us a low aUdae about a subject nono of us had ever heard of before;jgbL~PCB? was there another environmental hasard on tha harlsaa to bo dlgaatod by the minds of us already qutta ,i stuffed intellectually with bio-chemical MBs of fare? Ihore was. PCB stands for polychlorinated Mphonols. These are chemicals, very long* Head Utt tha pernicious DDT, vary stable once in thaenvironment and vary dMBcult to trace In ita movamant through food chains and in dividual metabolic systems. Boyto want on the explain that PCBs aroused by indurtrtei in the manufacture of a variety of consumer products including brake linings, adhesives and electronic capadtutors, They - have bean on tha market and In use for oomt 90 years but warn only discovered as a growing threat to our already-damaged environment In the early ISiOs by a Swedish scientfct named Jensen. PCBs are discharged directly from factories into adjoining water bodies and are also placed as waste Into municipal dumps. Rainfall closest stream or rivulet which leads to lakos and rivers. Both thme steps bring the chemical into wildlife food chalno. Polychlorinated biphenols art understood by bMcglsta today to have an extanaabr harmful effect on marina Hfe. The extent of this offset it till being determined end is complicated by the dtfftaulty of tracing the chemical through HONS 033311